Montgomery County in Pictures

Local News

Montgomery County Public Schools officials evacuated two county high schools Wednesday morning after unknown persons called the schools with bomb threats.
The first of the two threats was phoned in to Winston Churchill High School in Potomac at approximately 7:20 a.m., after which school officials ordered the building evacuated. Following a short delay, students and teachers returned to the building by 8:30 a.m. after Montgomery County Police responded to the situation and cleared the school for re-entry, Montgomery County Public Schools Spokesperson Gboyinde Onijala said.
“Based on a very limited general call, we checked out the building and found nothing there,” said Montgomery County Police Spokesman Capt. Paul Starks. “They’re back to normal functioning.”

TAKOMA PARK — The Takoma Park City Council will vote Wednesday to approve an ordinance that will permit restaurants to establish outdoor seating areas on public sidewalks.
The proposed ordinance – which seven of the eight Council members supported during the first of two required votes last week – establishes a process by which restaurants, coffee shops, cafes and community kitchens can apply for permits that will allow them to set up outdoor dining areas on publicly-owned sidewalks within the city.
“I think this would be a great benefit to the community and to businesses to allow this,” said Council member Kacy Kostiuk (Ward 3) while speaking during the Council’s Jan. 24 work session. “I was really excited by some of the ideas and recommendations that were in this related to doing some kind of innovative things like closing streets to offer opportunities for more of a plaza feel.”

Gaithersburg Police will continue to maintain a police presence at Gaithersburg High School all day Tuesday after concerned parents and students reported a possible threat to the school over the Presidents’ Day holiday.
The police deployment represents the fourth threat-related incident at a Montgomery County high school in the days following the Valentine’s Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., during which a former student killed 17 people with a high-powered rifle.
“Yes, there was a rumor going around of a possible threat to the high school,” said Gaithersburg Police Officer Dan Lane, a department spokesperson. “As a result of it, detectives did investigate the threat to see if it was credible or not.”
The threat, Lane said, came in the form of a social media posting, though he admitted that he had not seen the posting in question.
“I’ve just seen the text message sent to a group of people stating that there’s possibly going to be an incident at the high school,” he said. “As a result for a concern of staff and students, we have increased police presence here. We have been there all morning.”

Northwest High School. COURTESY PHOTO
Montgomery County Police charged a 15-year-old male student with “offenses relating to disrupting school operations” Friday after they worked with the high school’s staff to identify…

State News

Two of the Democrats who are vying for the chance to unseat Gov. Larry Hogan (R) in this year’s general election announced Lieutenant Governor picks this week in hopes of balancing ties to Montgomery County with the rest of the state in order to present an appealing choice to voters across Maryland.

Maryland’s controversial state song – “Maryland, My Maryland” – could soon go the way of eight-track tapes and cassettes if a number of state legislators get their way.
The Civil War-era battle hymn, which makes reference to “Northern scum,” takes its lyrics from a poem written in the early days of the conflict by James Ryder Randall, and with verses like “Thou wilt not cower in the dust, Maryland! Thy beaming sword shall never rust,” gained popularity with Confederate troops before being adopted as the official state song.
One proposal for changing the song is SB0790, sponsored by State Sen. Cheryl Kagan (D) of District 17. Kagan has been pushing to change the state song since 2016, and introduced her bill to “repeal and replace” the current song, which she called “embarrassing and dated and racist,” last week.

Independent candidate Neal Simon announces his bid for the U.S. Senate, challenging incumbent Sen. Ben Cardin (D). PHOTO BY GLYNIS KAZANJIAN A Potomac businessman fed up with partisan politics and a divided country entered the U.S. Senate race this week, backed by a national independent grassroots organization determined to break up the gridlock in Washington by robbing both political parties of their majority.
Bronfman Rothschild CEO and Principal Neal Simon announced his candidacy, after a short exploratory period, in a boutique hotel Tuesday in downtown Rockville, surrounded by about 50 of his friends, family and supporters.
“I’m here today because I believe we should have elected officials who put the best interests of their country ahead of the best interests of their political party,” Simon said. “We are forced to watch as our parties selfishly chip away at our sense of community to drag us deeper into debt without addressing our society’s key economic and social problems.
“Our leaders have stopped working together, stopped listening to each other and they’ve stopped listening to the concerns of working people,” Simon said. “We have a country where Congress works on behalf of special interests while failing to invest in the future of...

A new Maryland law requiring homeowners to update smoke alarms in their homes went into effect Jan. 1.
The law, originally passed in 2013, requires homeowners replace battery-operated smoke alarms with…

Columns

Somewhere today in this country there is a troubled kid who believes life isn’t worth living. People see him or her as a freak, a danger junkie, a gun-nut, a nerd, a weirdo, or someone who otherwise doesn’t fit in.That child is stockpiling weapons and plans to make the rest of the world pay for his or her pain.

I know we are in the middle of winter, but I didn't want to let this issue escape my scrutiny. Besides, it is sunny in West Palm Beach, Florida.Remember during the presidential campaign of 2016 how often candidate Trump complained about how many times his predecessor took time off to play golf? Quite a bit as I recall. I also recall quite vividly candidate Trump promising not to play golf if elected because there is so much to do there won't be enough time to play golf.He stated over and over again how he will be working, not playing. How he would “stay in the White House and work his ass off.” He accused his predecessor of playing more rounds of golf than Tiger Woods, than the players on the PGA tour. Quite a difference between promises made during a campaign and the reality after election. Especially when it comes to golf and the presidency and Donald J. Trump!Now for some of that post-election reality as it relates to golf and vacation days as a whole. Reality: Donald J. Trump during his first year in office took five times more vacation days than his predecessor Barack H. Obama.

Turns out the President of the United States may not be a misogynist after all. He’s a misanthrope.There is little else to conclude after the events of the past week.It began with the breaking news that White House Staff Secretary for President Donald Trump, Rob Porter, apparently beat two of his ex-wives.The information came to light when the FBI investigated Porter to give him security clearance. The story, complete with pictures of one of his wives with a black eye made the rounds and the White House began spinning like a turbo-charged child’s top.

Sports

Georgetown Prep’s Chimezie Offurum (#12) pops the one-handed jump shot as Bullis’ Lincoln Yeutter (#33) looks on and Kolin Lewis (#13) tries to sell a charge call. PHOTO BY GEORGE P. SMITH NORTH BETHESDA — For the past eight years, two schools have had a stranglehold on the Interstate Athletic Conference Tournament Championship trophy – Bullis and Episcopal.
However, the Georgetown Prep Little Hoyas varsity boys basketball team was crowned the 2018 IAC Tournament champion following a 60-49 win over the visiting Bullis Bulldogs Tuesday at The Hanley Center.
The Georgetown Prep senior class will graduate this year knowing they were the first team in a decade to capture the IAC championship trophy.
“This group is so special,” said Georgetown Prep head coach Ryan Eskow. “I can’t even describe how special this group is.”

B-CC Barons’ Stephanie Howell (14) drives the lane past RM Rockets’ Melanie Osborne (12). PHOTOS BY GEORGE P. SMITH BETHESDA — Caitlyn Clendenin saved the best for last.
The senior finished with a game-high 22 points Friday to lead the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Barons varsity girls basketball team to a 61-55 win over the Richard Montgomery Rockets in the regular season finale.
It was a special moment for Clendenin and her senior classmates as B-CC handed visiting Richard Montgomery their first loss of the season on Senior Night.
“It feels really good,” said Clendenin. “Some of my friends were on that team so it was exciting to play against them and have a little friendly competition with them and obviously exciting to get the win as well.”

BETHESDA — Miles English scored a game-high 21 points Friday to lead the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Barons varsity boys basketball team to a 63-40 win over the visiting Richard Montgomery Rockets on Senior Night.
English, a 6-foot-4 senior forward, was an integral force for the Barons who closed out the regular season with an 18-2 record.
“It was pretty emotional,” he said. “I wanted to leave it all out there and I think I did.”
English, who registered 10 points in the first quarter, only scored two points in the second period but contributed to the team in other ways.
“He’s pretty much been the backbone of this team all year,” said B-CC head coach Sean Tracy. “He does everything. He’s just one of those guys that you tell him to do something he goes out and executes.”

Features

PHOTO OF “BAIE ST. PAUL CREEK by Leni BerlinerLocal artist Leni Berliner did some painting as a high school student many years ago, and like most student artists, she laid down her brushes after graduation. But with the new millennium came what she called "a very difficult time" in her personal and professional life, the burden of which her mother sought to alleviate with a gift.
“My mother gave me the gift of drawing and painting classes at the Corcoran College of Art and Design in D.C.," Berliner said.
The classes reawakened a passion for painting and led her to rediscover and cultivate that talent.

“Woman Cleaning Shower” by Ramiro Gomez from National Portrait Gallery exhibit on work. COURTESY PHOTO “The Sweat of their Face: Portraying American Workers,” an exhibit on view at the National Portrait Gallery, contains well-known, even iconic, images.
These include “Power House Mechanic,” a black-and-white photograph by Lewis Hine; “The Miner,” an oil painting by Pat Lyon; “American Gothic,” by Gordon Parks, oil on beaver wood; “Mine America’s Coal,” by Norman Rockwell, “Cotton Pickers,” oil, by Winslow Homer, and “Migrant Mother,” a print by Dorothea Lange.
Other images are less known and even surprising, such as daguerreotypes by Joseph T. Zealy of semi-dressed slaves. Richard Avedon, best known for his work with celebrities and fashion icons, portrays migrant workers in a series of photographs.
But co-curators Dorothy Moss and David C. Ward are hoping that regardless of the individual images, viewers understand the exhibit’s goal.

A past production of Maryland Youth Ballet’s “The Nutcracker,” with Justin Metcalf-Burton and Maya Beeman. COURTESY PHOTOMaryland Youth Ballet can boast of many illustrious alumni.
Walk along the hallways of the ballet school, headquartered in downtown Silver Spring since 2006 (after a long sojourn in Bethesda), and you’ll see photographs of some notable faces.
Michelle Lees, the school’s artistic director, points them out: Julie Kent, a longtime principal of American Ballet Theatre, who was recently appointed the artistic director of the Washington Ballet; Susan Jaffe, a former dancer and ballet mistress at ABT and now Dean of the School of Dance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem; and Garen Price Scribner and Allison Walsh, who both appeared in the Broadway musical “An American in Paris.”
However, at Maryland Youth Ballet, the emphasis is on both the present and future.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie spoke at Gaithersburg High School on Sept. 26, as part of the One Maryland, One Book program. COURTESY PHOTO GAITHERSBURG — Award-winning and world-renowned author Chimamanda Ngozi…

Cast members rehearse for the Open Circle Theatre Retrospective. COURTESY PHOTO Rob McQuay’s formal theater experience began in junior high.
He acted through high school and college, then trained at Studio…

Top Stories

Montgomery County Public Schools officials evacuated two county high schools Wednesday morning after unknown persons called the schools with bomb threats.
The first of the two threats was phoned in to...

Northwest High School. COURTESY PHOTO
Montgomery County Police charged a 15-year-old male student with “offenses relating to disrupting school operations” Friday after they worked with the high school’s staff to identify…

Tyler Terry died Sunday at Children’s National Medical Center almost two weeks after collapsing during a planned physical fight at a Gaithersburg basketball court. COURTESY PHOTO Montgomery County Police are working…

Federation confronts school system over sex abuse cases
Montgomery County Public Schools officials are up in arms following a contentious meeting of the Montgomery County Civic Federation last month, during which…

WASHINGTON — Metro’s Inspector General Geoffrey Cherrington wants to take steps to ensure his office’s independence from Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority management, and he has some ideas as to…